“Only as long as you,” their youngest brother hollered back. “This is all Josh.”
Something in Owen’s chest shifted. It was more than just having all of them home at once, which was a truly rare event. It was Josh, the rebel who ran away, organizing a family reunion out of the blue. It was Seth walking down the dock like something out of Top Gun North. It was his brothers coming back, without cajoling or bribing, to this town they’d both flipped the bird to many years before.
He strode ahead of the others, meeting Seth at the entrance to the marina.
“You had to make an entrance,” Owen said.
“You love it.”
Owen laughed. “I really do. The plane’s looking great.”
“Yeah. She’s getting her miles in, too.”
“Work good?”
“Great. Busy. Thinking of hiring another pilot, too. How about you? Keeping busy?”
Seth was Owen’s original secret keeper. His middle brother had been the first person he’d told when he found out Rachel was pregnant. Fifteen-year-old Seth had pulled a bottle of vodka out from under his bed. Owen didn’t even bother to try to give him shit for it. They’d each done a shot, Seth had told him it would be okay, and the next morning, his wild but loving brother crossed the parking lot at school and gave Rach a big, tight hug.
Owen still carried guilt for that shot of vodka to this day. Big brother feelings were wild like that. But he couldn’t wait to tell Seth about Kerry. About how wild she made him feel, and how goodthatfelt. If anyone might understand, it would be Seth. Now wasn’t the time, but soon. “We’ll have a drink tonight and I’ll fill you in. I’ve met a woman.”
Since there were no secrets in their family, everyone arrived right behind him as he said that. Becca clearly wanted to spill all the dirt. He gave her a Dad Look, and she brought Charlie forward instead. “He’s sleeping,” she explained to Seth. “He does that a lot right now, at least during the day. If you stay at our place, be prepared for middle of the night company on the couch.”
“They can both stay at my place,” Will interjected. “All right, Josh. Where to next on our caravan of surprises?”
Josh turned and pointed. They all followed the line of his arm, to the old convenience store and gas bar at the corner of Main Street and Harbour Road, shuttered for at least five years. “That’s mine. I bought it last week.”
Everyone erupted.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“What do you mean youbought it, like you’re going to live there?”
“Are you opening a store?”
“What—”
Owen put his fingers between his lips and let out a piercing whistle.
Everyone stopped talking.
He gestured to Josh. “Go on.”
“I’m not re-opening the convenience store, or opening a gas station again. They took the tanks out years ago. But it is still zoned as a garage, and there’s an apartment in the back. I’m going to do custom commissions on hot rods and muscle car rebuilds. Pine Harbour Custom Garage has a certain ring to it, don’t you think?”
Owen loved it. “Amazing. But what happened to the racing circuit?”
Josh shrugged. “It got old.”
There was more to the story than that, but maybe that too was a story for later.
Owen looked at his brothers, all home just a couple of weeks before Canadian Thanksgiving. What a gift. “This calls for a celebration. Let’s go back to my place and fire up the grill.”
* * *
They spentthe afternoon at Owen’s, soaking up the sun in his backyard. Another week or two and the leaves would start to change colour, the nights would get cold, and they’d start to batten down the hatches for winter. It turned out Charlie liked Seth a lot, and he had his fourth nap of the day on his great-uncle’s chest.
They took turns talking about work. Adam didn’t bring up fire school, which surprised Owen and he made a mental note to ask him about that later. Becca dug up her old art kit, and Josh sketched out some of his ideas for the garage.
